A bit of a curve from the other raving reviews and comments on this drama. Y’know, i was told beforehand to keep my expectations a bit low when going in on a critical perspective, and from doing that, I’ve been able to enjoy many aspects here and complete the drama with little to no hesitancy. However, the things i found worthy of praise and checking out had also came with about twice the faults I couldn’t turn a blind eye to.

Plot

This drama had the grounds and pacing for a rather outstanding film, this is what both kept me going and disappointed me time and time again.

To relay my frustration here as simple as possible for those who hasn’t watched yet and may have stumbled across this, just picture a plot and it’s characters written from any notable films you’ve watched recently. Quick relation to keep in mind, surely we’ve all had fallen victim to a restaurant rather working with a low quantity in supply of what you’re ordering, or simply being stingy as hell for the sake of it. You order a drink with no ice so they don’t skimp out on the actual drink this time, but they fill the cup up about 2/3rds anyway. You order say a 12” sub today, different from your regular 6-8” order any other time you’ve came. You can’t help but notice that they’re using just about the same amount of toppings, but spread out more to fill the space. That’s what I’ve felt here, the structure of a film stretched out past its 2 hours worth of plot and limited characterizations to fit the 6+ hours to make out as a series.

Many key things are said about the characters, but most of the time you’re not seeing any of it relayed in the actions of said characters. It’s as if there wasn’t enough time to layer out everyone as much as they could have, but enough time for several daily interactions amongst colleagues that have little to no impact on building who these characters are. Not to mention the occasional after work dinners to fluff out the heavier days they made it through.

I found myself spending too much time pandering on “Hm, Miyabi’s capable of derailing something like that? Where is Osako’s intentions leaning more towards? Is Ayano…like blind, deaf, or dumb? Mai, read the letters on the screen, row by row. Tell me which lens is better between the perspective of a simp in distraught or the clueless romantic. Should we just check on Sanpei’s mental health at this point? At any point?” These and many more questions have been lingering throughout the entirety of the drama, my hopes in any of them being shed any light upon diminished the further i progressed.

Future me, i know, we’re missing a lot. I’m sitting on 3 hours of sleep from binging this 6 hour film, add whatever I don’t feel like touching on and edit this out, or just like ,don’t. We’re rambling , on to the highs that were worth my exhaustion.

Production/Casting

Fantastic performances and very well grounded casting choices. You can immediately tell they weren’t trying to fit any typical visual appeal here and went straight for who’s capable of fitting these roles exceptionally enough. A huge props to the supporting cast this time around, specifically the patients and their surreal portrayal of the stories behind them while maintaining similar themes and suturing them well with the main plot and messages.

Direction

To reiterate, this would have been masterclass had this drama simply been a film or more fleshed out to fit the structure and pacing of a series of its length. Regardless, it’s still this drama’s strongest suit for me among the best I’ve seen this year from dramas. It gives just about everything you’d expect from a great jdrama style of directing, muted tension when necessary, strong messages and topics sprinkled throughout, subtle tones and actions giving rewatching alot of value, overall great use of soundtrack(though a bit uncalled for a few times), brilliant use of imagery, and well versed guidance through rather tough scenes and evoked emotions of the characters.

Unmet is another one of the very few series I’ve managed to watch through that reminds me just how great a drama you have more gripes than praises with can be. And how differing opinions can hold different reasons in something being worth your time for. I can’t say that even my lowered expectations in some aspects were met here, but many other surprising aspects has shed light upon the faults, illuminating the hidden gem this drama is behind it all.